Chapter 219: Airdrops End And Long March Begins, New Struggles
Starting from September 20, night airdrops were carried out every night.
Flying two trips in one night, airdropping 16 tons of supplies.
Among them, 14 tons of Zhan Cheng Rice, 2 tons of rice military rations.
Participants: Fang Wen, Fang Shouxin, Shopkeeper Liu, Sun Debiao, Shunzi.
Fang Wen was responsible for piloting, the other four were responsible for airdropping. In theory, it was impossible to complete the airdrop task of over 5 tons per bomb bay on average.
For this reason, the aircraft bomb release device was modified again.
A conveyor belt was installed at the bomb bay, allowing supplies to be transported by hand-cranking.
The specific operation became:
Shunzi moved the supply bags with parachutes onto the conveyor belt, then the personnel at the three bomb bays turned the turntable, sending the supply bags to them.
They took the supply bags off the conveyor belt, placed them on the safety pallet, opened the bomb release lever, and the airdrop was complete.
After the first day’s airdrop ended, Fang Wen eagerly contacted the airdrop guidance personnel from various places to learn the airdrop results.
The seven airdrop guidance personnel who returned all reported similar situations.
During the airdrop process, because of the parachute deceleration, most landed intact, with only a few scraped by rocks and treetops, causing rice leakage.
At the same time, another piece of feedback was that the soldiers in each base area raved about the so-called ‘rice military rations’.
These soldiers living in the harshest conditions found the combination of sweet and salty flavors to be a delicacy.
This rice military ration not only filled the stomach but also replenished the salt lost after intense activity, as well as providing energy from sugar.
Plus the nutritional value of the rice itself, it was a good choice for wartime conditions.
It was just too luxurious to receive rice and rice cakes via airdrop, and the quantity was not large.
For this reason, each base area subsequently updated their rice product military rations on their own, replacing the original hunger-filling fried rice and salt-supplementing vinegar cloth with the better snow rice cake military rations.
This change improved the lives of the Red Army soldiers somewhat.
The 400-ton supply airdrop continued. At 16 tons of supplies per day, it took a total of 25 days to airdrop all 400 tons.
Fang Wen felt somewhat guilty; it seemed this was all he could do.
The main reason was that Taishan Airlines’ foundation was insufficient. Besides Taishan One, there were no other large transport aircraft, and he was the only pilot for night flights.
On October 25, at the Xiangxi Airport canteen, Fang Wen, Fang Shouxin, Shopkeeper Liu, Sun Debiao, Shunzi, and the 7 returned action team members gathered together.
Fang Wen raised his glass: “Today, here, we celebrate the successful completion of the Taishan Volunteer Army airdrop operation. Let’s drink this cup together and wish our Taishan Volunteer Army grows stronger, so we can personally drive the Japanese out of China.”
“Yes, drive out the Japanese.” Everyone raised their glasses and drank heartily.
With the strong liquor down, everyone became talkative.
Shunzi was very curious about the Red Army base areas.
He asked: “What is it like over there?”
The seven who went to the base areas were deeply touched and answered one by one.
Zhang Yunfei: “They are not afraid of death. I’ve never seen people like this; they believe they are doing something great.”
Chen Suoxin: “From childhood to adulthood, since I understood things, I’ve been mixing in the jianghu. Luckily my master took me in, or I wouldn’t have today. I once thought that was everything, but after seeing them, I realized there is more in this world.”
The first two spoke unclearly, Liu Ying Shou added: “Many soldiers come from poor backgrounds. In the Red Army, they learned principles and understand what they are fighting for.”
Liu Yu Bao continued: “I heard the instructor say that what’s wrong is not the people, but the entire society. Only by breaking the old society and establishing a new one can the man-eat-man situation be changed.”
The seven action team members grew more excited as they spoke, recounting what they saw and heard in the base areas, causing Shopkeeper Liu, Sun Debiao, Fang Shouxin, and Fang Shun to put down their chopsticks and wine cups to listen attentively.
Fang Wen was also listening, but his thoughts turned elsewhere.
The Long March had finally begun.
He had originally felt guilty for not being able to help much.
But now, he had another idea.
History is like this; the Red Army needs to walk that path of trials so they can sublimate, be reborn, and soar high.
What he did was merely reduce the difficulty of this process a little.
Whether it was the Red Army, himself, or everyone, there must always be trials; that’s life.
He raised his glass, “Let’s toast to the Red Army; they are warriors with noble sentiments.”
Everyone raised their glasses and drank together.
With the airdrop plan ended, Fang Wen’s life entered another busy phase.
Because of the airdrop, the aircraft manufacturing plant had not started, but Taishan International’s cargo ship had already delivered the supplies procured from the United States to Yangon.
The workers for the aircraft manufacturing plant must be recruited as soon as possible.
Besides the aircraft manufacturing plant, there was also the domestic side of Taishan Airlines. After the board of directors reorganization, Quan Yuncai had come to Taishan Airlines Headquarters multiple times, demanding acceleration of domestic flight route expansion.
The big shot behind Quan Yuncai had secured a high-amount loan for Taishan Airlines Domestic Branch, just waiting for Fang Wen to spend it.
Also, the penicillin factory in Xishuangbanna had been built under the joint efforts of Wu Yingzong and the four others along with biology experts from Tsinghua University.
Fang Wen had never had time to visit.
All these matters were important; Fang Wen had to handle them.
The day after the celebration, he piloted Taishan One back to Shanghai Airport.
After returning home and resting for a day, Fang Wen changed into a suit, went to the general manager’s office, took out Quan Yuncai’s phone number, and dialed.
“Mr. Quan, I was delayed by some personal matters recently.”
“Your personal matters are really minor! Fine, I won’t hold it against you. Let’s talk about Taishan Airlines expansion.”
“Regarding Taishan Airlines expansion, I have a good suggestion,” Fang Wen replied.
“Then tell me.”
“Currently, domestic aviation infrastructure is rudimentary. Besides big cities, other places make it hard to land aircraft. But in our China, wealth is hidden among the people. If the flight paths can connect to counties where local gentry and tycoons are, the business will be huge.”
“Fine! General Manager Fang, your mouth can bring the dead back to life. Then tell me, how much money do you plan to borrow for this? Is one hundred million silver dollars enough? The people behind me want profit, not your grand aspiration to benefit Huaxia Airlines.”
Listening to Quan Yuncai’s sarcasm, Fang Wen was not bothered, because he hadn’t explained fully, so it was no wonder they didn’t understand.
Fang Wen continued: “Earlier this year, while abroad, I developed a seaplane with excellent performance in all aspects. This aircraft has an advantage: it doesn’t need a dedicated runway; it can land and take off at docks or calm waters. My idea is to establish seaplane docks along China’s major waterways, building a widespread aviation network.”
“Alright, alright, I get it. No wonder last time in Hong Kong, you asked for help recruiting people; that aircraft manufacturing plant is for producing seaplanes, right? I thought you were just impulsive, but you’ve already made a real aircraft. But I can’t just take your word that the performance is superior; I need to see it before reporting to the higher-ups.”
“No problem, I’ll contact you once I bring the aircraft back.”
Fang Wen hung up the phone and smiled.
So what about the four major families; once they took his shares, they had to help him with something.
As a man from the future, Fang Wen had no fear of the four major families and laid out his plans directly.
Whether this aircraft manufacturing plant could succeed depended on passing Quan Yuncai’s scrutiny.
He then went next door to talk with his wife Kuang Mingzhu, who currently managed Taishan Airlines’ overseas operations.
The deputy general manager’s office next door was bustling.
Chun Cao and Qiu Ju were handling documents, while Kuang Mingzhu talked with someone from the telegraph room.
“Send a telegram to Kabul, have them increase the counter area. Now there are more passengers, the shops’ cargo needs to increase, and the airport branch’s sales growth is far below passenger growth.”
“Yes, Deputy General Manager.” The telegraph operator noted it down, stood up to leave, saw Fang Wen, and quickly said: “Hello, General Manager.”
Fang Wen smiled: “Carry on with your work.”
He walked to his wife’s side, “Delegate when you should; don’t do everything yourself, it’s exhausting.”
Kuang Mingzhu leaned against her husband’s waist, “I don’t want to either, but as a woman like me, if I don’t pay attention to everything, I’m afraid I can’t keep them in check.”
Fang Wen stroked his wife’s hair: “I know, the company lacks reliable hands right now. The action team members are dependable. Once I go to Xishuangbanna, I’ll transfer Wu Yingzong and them over to help you manage the international flight company.”
At this point, Fang Wen suddenly realized that since getting married, he had spent too little time with his wife.
Luckily it was the young lady from a prominent family Kuang Mingzhu; if it were a future girlfriend, they would have quarreled and broken up long ago.
He really felt sorry for his wife; they hadn’t even had a honeymoon after marriage.
Fang Wen looked at his wife’s delicate face and felt guilty.
He squatted down and held his wife’s hand.
“Take a break.”
“Ah?” Kuang Mingzhu was puzzled.
“You’ve worked hard. Don’t come to work for a while; I’ll take you traveling, to make up for the trip we missed after marriage.”
A smile bloomed on Kuang Mingzhu’s face like a beautiful flower: “Husband, thank you.”
But she added:
“Bring Chun Cao and Qiu Ju too.”
Chun Cao and Qiu Ju quickly waved their hands: “Miss, no, don’t spoil the young master’s good intentions; we won’t get involved in this.” “Yes, miss, the young master wants to go out alone with you; don’t drag us along and ruin the mood.”
Kuang Mingzhu looked at Fang Wen doubtfully: “Is that so?”
How could he answer that? Fang Wen replied without hesitation: “Of course, I just want the two of us.”
The beautiful general manager’s wife radiated brilliance, as if returning to the youthful girl before marriage.
She took Fang Wen’s arm, and the two happily left the office and went downstairs.
Along the way, employees had never seen the deputy general manager like this and didn’t know how to react, so they all avoided them.
Fang Wen took his wife home, organizing luggage while explaining the situation.
“I’ll go to Yangon to pick up the seaplane, then fly back to pick you up. First, we’ll fool Quan Yuncai into approving the loan, then travel across the land and rivers of China, and recruit a batch of science university students to the Yangon factory to build aircraft.”
“No, I’ll go to Yangon with you.” Kuang Mingzhu insisted; since she agreed to the trip for two, she wanted to join from the start.
“That works too.” Fang Wen agreed.
“Alright, I’ll prepare for you.”
Kuang Mingzhu excitedly began.
This was a side of her Fang Wen didn’t know; in these two years, his wife had bought so many things for him.
Shaving razor, shirt, underwear, toothbrush, jacket, etc., all unused; she had prepared them all.
Once everything was packed, Kuang Mingzhu explained: “Every time I think of you, I can’t help buying things for you.”
“Oh, that’s great; I won’t need to buy them myself in the future.” Fang Wen laughed it off.
In half a day, the luggage was packed.
Fang Wen and his wife took the company’s international flight.
After transiting in Guangzhou, before takeoff, the flight attendant announced: “Passengers please note, due to special reasons, this flight will make a temporary stop at Yangon Airport. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
No one quarreled about it; the aircraft took off smoothly.
A few hours later, the d.332 passenger aircraft landed in Yangon.
Fang Wen, wearing sunglasses and a trench coat, and his wife disembarked under everyone’s gaze; the flight attendants diligently retrieved their luggage from the luggage compartment.
The flight attendant flattered: “General Manager, you’ve worked hard.”
The flattery missed; Fang Wen felt he shouldn’t accept it and patted the flight attendant’s shoulder: “I’m not tired, you are. Work well; you’ll surely achieve something in the future.”
“Yes.” The flight attendant excitedly returned to the aircraft.
“He seems to have taken your words to heart,” Kuang Mingzhu said.
“Maybe. The secret to success is persistence.” Fang Wen tossed out a piece of philosophy and walked with Kuang Mingzhu to the nearby hangar.
Because it wouldn’t fly for a long time, the seaplane was stored in the land hangar, with wheels for land movement installed under its two floats.
Fang Wen drove the aircraft out of the airport and into the water via the dock ramp.
The seaplane returned to the water surface, finally free.
While debugging the aircraft equipment, Fang Wen stated the new plan.
“Since you came along, don’t go back to Shanghai first. We’ll go to the nearer Xishuangbanna to check on the penicillin production there.”
Seated in the back, Kuang Mingzhu buckled her safety belt and curiously examined the aircraft’s internal structure.
“Have you named this aircraft?”
“Not yet. It needs a name, and as the first aircraft model from Taishan Aircraft Manufacturing Plant, it needs a model name too. Mingzhu, you name it.”
Kuang Mingzhu bit her lip, eyes looking up and to the left, thinking.
After a while, she said: “It’s a seaplane, so it should relate to water. Its wings are broad; how about Yunhe? People say riding a crane is immortal behavior, flying above the clouds—hence Yunhe.”
Fang Wen nodded: “Good, Yunhe it is. What about the model name?”
“I see you use Jia Yi Bing Ding for international flight numbers; how about gold wood water fire earth for aircraft models? Seaplane uses water, so Shuiyun Type 1.”
His wife’s cultural level was much higher than his; Fang Wen admired how he had won her over.
He nodded in agreement, started the engine: “Good. Now, Shuiyun Type 1 aircraft, code name Yunhe, is taking off.”
The aircraft cut two water trails on the sea surface, then took off toward Xishuangbanna’s capital Jinghong City, 750 kilometers away.
